Draymond Green to Charles Barkley: Punch Me in the Face or Shut Up

TNT’s Charles Barkley, never one to mince words, admitted that he’d like to see Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green get punched in the face. Ideally, he’d do the job himself.

“I just want somebody to punch him in the face,” Barkley said during halftime while responding to a dust-up between Green and Rajon Rondo. “I’m telling you, I want to punch his ass in the face. I do.”

While we can all appreciate the brilliance of the phrase “punch his ass in the face,” Green understandably did not love the sentiment. Responding post-game, he basically offered an ultimatum to Barkley: either follow through on your desire or shut up.

“A lot of guys talk on TV,” Green said. “Stand behind the microphone on the TV screen. Fact of the matter is, if you feel that strongly about something, he’s even seen me a million times, then punch me in my face when you see me. If you’re not going to punch me in my face when you see me, then shut up. It’s no different than somebody sitting behind a computer screen, tweeting, ‘I’ll knock you out,’ and you never see him in life.

“He’s seen me a bunch of times. Punch me in the face when you see me, or if not, no one cares what you would have done. You’re old and it is what it is. You ain’t going to punch me when you see me, then stop talking about it, period.”

Comparing Barkley to a Blog Boy is a nice touch. Say what you want about Green, but he knows how to press the right buttons.

Both these guys enjoy talking, so it’s easy to see this is just two guys letting off steam. If one takes Barkley’s words seriously, though, it presents an interesting situation. TNT is paying him to be entertaining, but does speaking about his wishes to punch a current player cross the line?

Green touched on that very issue in a conversation with The Athletic’s Tim Kawakami.